THE TRIAL

Veteran performer George Guidall knows what he's doing when he speeds up, backs off, and lurches from fear to relief to shock. It's a narration veering out of control and threatening to crash at any moment, as is Josef K., the character whose trial Guidall is describing. In a story that invokes the humiliatingly absurd, no-win predicaments we think of as Kafkaesque, Guidall shows his understanding of the characters. He also understands the importance of atmosphere to the story. As he describes the garrets, the courtrooms, the rats-in-a-maze thoughts running through Josef K.'s mind as he fights charges that are never spelled out to him, the listener feels trapped and claustrophobic, just as Kafka intended. A less skilled narrator would have made it easier on the listener. T.F. © AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC/JAN 00]